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Well I don’t know why I came here tonight
I’ve got the feeling that something ain’t right
I’m so scared in case I fall off my chair
And I’m wondering how I’ll get down the stairs

Clowns to the left of me
Jokers to the right
Here I am stuck in the middle with you

Yes I’m stuck in the middle with you
And I’m wondering what it is I should do
It’s so hard to keep this smile from my face
Losing control, yeah I’m all over the place

Clowns to the left of me
Jokers to the right
Here I am stuck in the middle with you
When you started off with nothing
And you’re proud that you’re a self-made man

And your friends they all come crawling
Slap you on the back and say
Please
Please

Trying to make some sense of it all
But I can see it makes no sense at all
Is it cool to go to sleep on the floor?
‘Cause I don’t think that I can take anymore

Clowns to the left of me
Jokers to the right
Here I am stuck in the middle with you

As a Socialist this writer tried for decades to forgive the Democratic Party for their sins of omission. That omission was in NOT creating viable laws and programs to stifle this American Military Empire. They could have stood up to the far right wing fusillade and fired their own shots: Slashing the obscene military spending ( accounting for at least 50% of federal discretionary spending) by at least a few hundred billions of dollars annually ; Complete Medicare ( and Dental Care) for all citizens; raising the top federal income rate for those earning over a million dollars per year from the current  37% to the 70% before Reagan cut it down to 50% in 1981; shutting many of our close to 1000 foreign military bases and bringing personnel home; cease participating in countless overseas military engagements ( remember, WW2 was the ONLY war that we actually declared); push for taking ALL money out of electoral campaigns, replacing it with PUBLIC FUNDING OF ALL ELECTIONS; Erasing the heinous system of ABSENTEE LANDLORDS ( mostly corporate monsters) and replacing it with community ownership of rental housing ( with options for tenants to have a % of their rent going into the kitty for future down payments to eventually OWN  their residence); federal subsidizing of nonprofit community owned and run mortgage banks charging but overhead costs ( imagine it being cheaper to make a mortgage payment vs. rent); Adopting a Universal Basic Income system for all citizens that would surely STIMULATE THE ECONOMY AS NEVER BEFORE!… need I go on?

Of course, the other political party , which has always bled fascist, has now , since Trump and DeSantis, revealed its true colors. Fascism is actually a kinder, gentler term for what these repressive autocrats have become. Let’s put it this way: The Nazi Party of the 1930s-40s would be prouder than even today’s Proud Boys at how far the Republicans have gone. Yet, so many working stiffs across this nation look at these people as the antidote. Goebbels would smile at how the propaganda has succeeded in making blue and white collar folks follow the piper… over the cliffs of reason. And, why is that? Well, look at their adversaries in the Jackass party. They are labeled as ‘ Far Left’, ‘Marxist’, ‘Big Brother’ and so on. The Christian Fascists that Chris Hedges pinpoints so well help to lead the choir. To them, the ONLY issues that matter are protecting white students from understanding how slavery was as American as apple pie; protecting little boys from being turned into girls; making abortion not only a sin but a crime; and of course the freedom to be unvaccinated and unmasked indoors, thus passing virus germs to others so easily (Of course, the majority of Republican politicos have been properly vaccinated). All those blue and white collar fellow citizens who march to the MAGA tune refuse to care that their heroes, the Super Rich, are making out like bandits through tax cuts and donor friendly city, state and federal contracts.

So, for folks like this writer the voting process solves very little… except this: The threat of outright Nazi like fascism coming from the Republicans makes many of us vote for the Jackasses to keep the beast away. Of course, the Jackasses serve the beast too, just in a more docile manner. Hedges now calls them The War Party, and sadly they are. All the so called progressive Democrats continue to vote for more and more military spending… look at Ukraine. The figure is already up to approximately $ 100 billion , money that could have been used for strengthening our domestic safety net. The anti war movement in our country is living on a dead end street. To once again paraphrase the German lady visiting America a few years ago, when my 90 year old activist pal and I stood outside the library with our protest signs against this Military Industrial Empire. She said ” You know, if my country was doing what your nation is doing all over the world with those phony wars and obscene military spending, there would be a THOUSAND  out here.”

The only thing worse than being stuck in the middle is being crushed in the middle!

PA Farruggio
February 2023